“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Days Before the Election Political Parties Attempt to Shame Non-Voters into Voting

Political parties are increasingly turning to a very unpopular tactic to increasing turnout: mailers to voters telling them that their voting history is being monitored by the parties and other organization and that, if they fail to vote this failure, will be public record. In other words, they're trying to shame likely non-voters into voting by outing their conduct. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Democratic Party postcards and letters sent
to more than 800,000 New Yorkers this week gave them grades based on how
often they had voted and told them their voting records in 2014 would
be watched.

Political observers, both partisan and not, said the mailers were akin to a pre-Halloween scare.

But
so-called voter shaming has become standard nationwide, with recent
examples in Alaska, North Carolina and Virginia, Democratic Party
officials say. The mailers have proven particularly effective in
competitive races, increasing voter turnout by as much as eight
percentage points, according to a Yale University study in 2008.

..

The language used in the mailers bothered
some Democratic Party officials. The end of one of the letters reads:
“If you do not vote this year, we will be interested to hear why not.”

“I
think that last line has a threatening tone to it,” said
Jay Jacobs,
chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee in Long
Island, where some of the mailers were sent. “I don’t think that’s the
way we go about it.”

Analysts said the mailers could backfire.

“It’s just dumb,” said
Gerald Benjamin,a professor of political science at SUNY-New Paltz. “Citizens
rightly believe their vote is a private matter and this could cause some
voters to see this as an excessive scrutiny of their behavior.”

A Google search reveals numerous incidents of vote shaming across the country. While most efforts are by Democrats, Republicans have increasingly become engaged in the practice. Here is but a very small example of stories on the subject.

About Me

I have been an attorney since the Fall of 1987. I have worked in every branch of government, including a stint as a Deputy Attorney General, a clerk for a judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals, and I have worked three sessions at the Indiana State Senate.
During my time as a lawyer, I have worked not only in various government positions, but also in private practice as a trial attorney handing an assortment of mostly civil cases.
I have also been politically active and run this blog in an effort to add my voice to those calling for reform.